History

Our history
1933 |
Franz Leo Niehoff founds a coffee-roasting business in Gronau with an adjoining colonial goods store. |
1945 |
Sons Franz, Willi, Leo and Fritz take over the business. |
1949 |
Franz Niehoff Snr. and his wife Else carry on the business and now concentrate mainly on specialities. |
1978 |
Along with mother Else, Franz Niehoff Jnr. takes over running the roastery after his father’s death. |
Until the mid-1980s |
Roasting is done on a Probat drum roaster in small batches of around 60kg. The sales operation is almost exclusively on a local basis. |
1983 |
Delivery of the first organic coffee to Lebensbaum |
1985 |
First contract roasting for GEPA; start of joint organic coffee purchasing for Lebensbaum products |
1988/89 |
Relocation of the roastery to the current site; modernisation of the technical equipment and first use of the Gothot Rapido Nova 1000 roaster (roasting capacity: 140kg) |
1992 |
Expansion by building a new warehouse (600 m2) |
1996 |
Expansion by building a further warehouse (520 m2) |
2000 |
Adjoining land and building purchased for expansion of administration and production facilities |
2001 |
Construction of a connecting structure between the two buildings incorporating 24 fully automated ground coffee silo cells (capacity: 24t); |
2002 |
Addition of a new raw coffee warehouse (640 m2) |
2003 |
Conversion and remodelling of the administrative area |
2006 |
Installation of new staff rooms |
2010 |
Construction of a raw coffee silo tower with 64-tonne storage capacity, split into 34 cells inclusive of pre-cleaning systems |
2010/11 |
The business is taken over by AUWA Holding GmbH of Diepholz. Thomas Busjan, for many years the roastery’s Prokurist (authorised officer), becomes managing director. |
2012/13 |
Remodelling and expansion of the roasting hall and installation of the new RFB 200 roaster (roasting capacity: 220kg) with new roasted coffee storage cells and a new conveyor belt system for transporting the coffee |
2014 |
First use of a new finished products warehouse (760 m2) |
2015 |
Modernisation of the laboratory area |